Between 2004 and 2006 - Chase the Sun

I was in my house, which looked completely different from my waking life home. My character's parents were in the kitchen. I was a teenage boy and I was arguing with my sister who was a few years younger than me (again, different from waking life - I don't have a sister and I am female). The argument was triggered when my sister discovered I was packing and planning to leave. I had a helmet and food and just about every other necessity and oddity stuffed into a backpack. I left a few minutes later. If my sister left as well, she went a different direction.

***

I was in a forest, but now I had the same appearance as my waking life self. My friends SP, SL, and AP were there with me. We were pawing through the items we had brought with us. We took inventory of all our combined supplies and rationed out the food.

***

The four of us were standing at the top of a hill that overlooked the ocean. I was playing a red, hand held video game. I was moving a seagull character around on the screen, and I won the game. A voice announced that as a reward, we would be allowed to chase the sun as it set over the ocean. I was using the controls at first, but soon I became the seagull and I was flying over the water. It took me a while to get used to how to maneuver, but then I was twisting and turning just for the fun of it. I even swooped down just above the surface of the ocean, tipped my wing, and trailed it in the water. Then I went too fast and went spinning out of control. I steadied myself with some effort and tried to glide smoothly again.

As I approached the sun, I landed on a small strip of land, human once more. I discovered then that the sun was made out of cardboard. I knocked it over. Without a further thought, I turned to my right and walked along the strip of land.

I found a cave with a shallow, natural pool of water. The cave was dimly lit by candlelight, which created flickering patterns of light on the water. The pool was bordered by dark rock with boulders of the same composition resting at the bottom, and there were a few kids splashing about. I walked around the edge and investigated the water, then wandered back outside. My friends had caught up and said I had gone too fast. I was excited, and told them I wanted to show them something. We explored the cave and found an even larger pool a little further along. We decided to go swimming there.

Note: It doesn't seem to happen as frequently these days as it used to, but sometimes I have dreams where instead of being myself as I am in waking life, I see things from the perspective of a different person, almost as if I am playing the part of a character. These characters may be similar to who I am, or they may be of a different age, gender or personality. On much rarer occasions, I may temporarily take on the form of an animal, as in the case of this dream.

Also note that I only use the initials of people I know from waking life who make appearances in my dreams, but I'll use the full names of any dream characters who don't exist in waking life.